


Partners

by WitchyBee



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Temporary Character Death, Connor (Detroit: Become Human) is In Denial About Deviancy, Connor Deserves Happiness, Deviant Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It of Sorts, Friendship, Gen, Hank Being Awesome, Mid-Canon, POV Hank Anderson, Pacifist Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Protective Hank Anderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 13:46:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15996452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WitchyBee/pseuds/WitchyBee
Summary: Once a deviant, always a deviant.Or something like that.





	Partners

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a slightly frustrating playthrough. Basically just how I wished things had happened instead.
> 
> This can be read as a father and son relationship, or whatever your interpretation of their dynamic is.

Hank sits in the car outside of Elijah Kamski’s house. Ten minutes with that creep and he feels like he needs a shower. And a drink.

He glances at Connor, who’s sitting rigidly as ever in the passenger's seat, expression carefully neutral. His LED cycles between blue and yellow, which is at least better than the distressed red it had been a moment ago.

He'd never seen Connor like that before. So defensive, so...expressive. Hank approves of his partner’s choice to spare the girl, of course, but he got the impression CyberLife might not. Even his programming seems to insist he made the wrong call. Kamski’s test was obviously some kind of sick game, but it does reinforce what Hank has suspected for a while now: that when it comes down to it, Connor prioritizes life (both human and android) above his mission. And nothing is supposed to be more important to him than the mission. Not even his own goddamn survival.

Empathy.

Hank thinks about what he heard earlier this morning. About Chris on his knees in the snow, pleading for his life as Markus aimed the officer’s own service weapon at his head. But then the deviant leader had slowly lowered the gun and, apparently, fucking quoted Gandhi. Even if that last part was just the shock talking, Hank can’t shake this feeling that humans are on the wrong side of history.

“Lieutenant?”

“Hm?”

“Are we returning to the police station?”

Oh yeah. He should be driving. He doesn’t want to think about the paperwork waiting for him once they get back.

Fuck it.

“Nah, it’s almost noon. Let's get some lunch.”

Connor doesn’t protest. Chicken Feed it is.

 

—

 

Fuck, it’s freezing. Hank really hates November. He sips his coffee, idly chatting with Gary while he waits for his burger to cook. Apparently business is slow because of the cold weather and everyone starting to panic about deviants. Hank takes the hint and pays for his meal this time.

It isn’t until he’s walking back to the car that he realizes Connor isn’t next to him. Hank’s just become so used to the android following him around like a shadow that he doesn’t even question it, but sure enough, Connor actually stayed in the car this time. A few days ago, that would’ve been great news, but not anymore.

Hank turns the engine on for the heat and takes a few bites of his burger. He’s spent a lot of time in the car with Connor the last few days, and it’s never been this awkward, not even when he was being a drunk asshole.

Finally, he decides to confront his partner.

“All right, what the fuck’s going on with you?”

“I don’t know what you mean, Lieutenant. I am fully operational.”

Connor doesn’t have very many tells. His voice and face don’t give him away, but his hands do, fingers twitching slightly where they rest in his lap. The android is a fidgeter. He can barely sit still for five minutes, but he always insists there’s purpose behind his actions. Coin tricks are for ‘calibration’, adjusting his tie all the time ‘maintains presentability’, and he’s constantly moving from one thing to another to ‘advance the mission’. Hank isn’t buying any of it. He’s had years of practice spotting nervous tics.

“Bullshit. You’ve barely said a word since we left Kamski’s, you stayed in the car for once, and you haven’t even nagged me about my cholesterol.” Connor looks at the burger, LED flickering yellow for a second. Hank sighs. Before the android can tell him exactly how unhealthy his meal is, he says, “Look, I’m just—I know what happened back there fucked with your head. So, uh, are you all right?”

Connor doesn’t answer for a long time. “I don’t know,” he finally says, quietly. The truth. “I’m sorry, Lieutenant. It’s my fault we didn’t progress the investigation.“

Why the fuck would CyberLife program an android to blame itself anyway? Just to discourage failure? Connor would probably claim any guilt he feels is nothing more than a simulation, but it sure as hell looks real from where Hank is sitting.

“You did the right thing, okay? We’ll figure this out,” he attempts to reassure, but Connor just shakes his head, as if Hank is missing the point, missing something obvious.

"I should’ve informed you that my software is showing signs of instability,” Connor goes on, his tone clinical, detached, but his LED briefly flares red. “There is a chance I might be compromised.”

“Like a...virus or something?”

“Kamski believed so.”

Oh. Like deviancy.

“Listen, just because that asshole wrote some of your code or whatever doesn’t mean he gets to decide what–who you are. No one fuckin' does. Not even CyberLife. You gotta figure that shit out yourself.”

It’s selfish, he knows it is, but Hank really does not want to be on opposite sides of the war Kamski predicted if it comes to that.

“Kamski was wrong. I’m not a deviant. I am a machine designed to accomplish a task,” Connor replies, convincing neither Hank nor himself.

"Whatever you say, Connor.”

They drive back to the police station in silence.

 

—

 

Of course, Fowler waits until the end of the day to tell them they’re off the deviancy case.

Connor doesn't react to the news at all. Just stands there with his eyes shut. He must be making another report to CyberLife. Whoever the android's supervisors are, he can't imagine they're happy with his lack of progress. Hank tries to convince the captain that they’ve almost cracked the case, which isn’t true as far as he knows, but it’s not Fowler’s decision anymore. The goddamn FBI is taking over. Perkins, specifically. Motherfucker.

“You’re back on homicide,” Jeffrey tells him. “And the android returns to CyberLife. I’m sorry.”

Connor stares straight ahead, feigning calm, just like when he’d stared down the barrel of Hank’s gun on that bridge and admitted, in his own strange way, that he was afraid to die.

Not Hank’s finest moment.

He storms out of Jeffrey’s office and goes back to his desk, because what else can he do? Hank is pissed off, sure, but he’s also sort of resigned to shit not going his way at this point. To his surprise, Connor is equally frustrated and a lot less willing to accept defeat.

The longer he watches the android, though, the more it starts to look like something else entirely.

“There has to be a way. We can’t just give up like that.”

Denial.

“You heard Fowler. We’re off the case,” Hank says. “It's not like we had much to go on anyway.“

“We just needed more time. I know we could’ve solved this case!”

Anger.

He has his doubts about that given how little evidence they’ve managed to collect so far, but he isn’t the state-of-the-art prototype here.

“I just need five minutes to find a lead in the evidence before Perkins takes it. I know the solution is in there. Please, Lieutenant, you've got to help me. Five minutes, that's all I ask.”

Bargaining.

Fucking puppy eyes. He wants to help his partner, but it’s risky, because Connor still might not see it the same way he does. “What if we’re on the wrong side, Connor? What if we’re fighting against people who just wanna be free?”

“Lieutenant, I was designed for this. If I don't locate Jericho, CyberLife will destroy me. I’ll be deactivated and analyzed to find out why I failed. We could've stopped the chaos. Now it's too late.”

Depression.

Hank tries once again to convey to Connor that he's more than a machine. That he is capable of empathy, frustration, fear, and most likely other fun aspects of personhood as well. His words are met with contemplative uncertainty.

"I know it hasn't always been easy, but I want you to know I really appreciated working with you. And that's not just my Social Relations program talking, I-I really mean that. At least...I think I do.”

Acceptance.

Connor is saying goodbye.

He has a choice to make. They both do.

Hank is a betting man. He’s lost a lot of money on horseraces following Pedro’s bad tips. After all, who needs a retirement fund when you don’t plan to live that long anyway, right? He doesn’t have much else to lose, so he gambles with his life too, with alcohol and unhealthy food. With drunk Russian roulette at the kitchen table. He likes to play the odds, curious what will finish him off first.

It all comes down to whether or not Hank is willing to bet on Connor making the right decision, and what he’s prepared to lose if he’s wrong. His own worthless life? Whatever’s left of his career? Absolutely. But countless androids' lives, the future of a fledgling people? That’s a much higher price to pay.

Being human, he can’t calculate the exact statistics in his head, but he knows Connor. He's watched the android go out of his way to protect humans and let deviants escape. Connor saved Hank's pathetic life on more than one occasion, too. He has seen how conflicted the kid is about it but he clearly has thoughts and feelings that aren't part of some program. He is alive, and Hank won’t let CyberLife kill his partner before he can even see it himself. Before he has a chance to really live.

“The key to the basement is on my desk. Five minutes. I can't distract him forever,” he says, standing up. "And, Connor?"

"Yes, Lieutenant?"

"Watch your back, all right?"

As he’s pulled away from the FBI agent, blood on his knuckles, Hank thinks it’s completely worth losing his badge. What’s happening out there is bigger than him. It's important. He doesn’t believe in much, but right now he sure as hell believes in Connor.

 

—

 

That’s probably why he is so shocked to find Connor perched on that roof, sniper rifle trained on the deviants’ leader. Sure, it hurts that his partner betrayed his trust, and the first small flicker of hope he felt since Cole died. But more than that, it doesn’t even make sense. Washed-up as he is, Hank is still a cop, at least until things calm down long enough for his punishment to be decided. So he starts analyzing the situation like it’s a crime scene. He does his job.

The FBI's raid brought down Jericho but failed to stop the revolution. Connor doesn’t normally resort to violence, yet here he is with Markus in his sights. It’s inelegant. CyberLife must be getting desperate.

“You shouldn’t do this, Connor,” he says, voice calmer than he feels. “It’s wrong. And unless everything you’ve done since we met was a lie, I think you know that. You don’t want to pull the trigger.”

“I am incapable of wanting anything. I have a mission to accomplish, Hank. It’s best if you just stay out of this. It’s none of your business.”

Sounds an awful lot like he wants Hank to leave. Again with the fucking mission, though. Accomplishing his mission hadn’t been enough incentive for Connor to shoot those two girls at the Eden Club. Something’s changed.

“You’re gonna kill a man who wants to be free. That is my business.”

“It’s not a man,” Connor says. “It’s a machine.”

That's what Hank once believed, too, but it’s not right.

None of this adds up. What had Connor said after they left Kamski’s house? _I just saw that girl’s eyes...and I couldn’t._

“Deviants’ blood may be a different color than mine, but they’re alive, and so are you. I just didn’t want to admit it.”

Connor doesn't reply. He’s acting more like a machine than ever. Cold. Unfeeling. Completely dedicated to his current objective. The android doesn’t even turn around to face him as Hank approaches slowly, his own gun drawn.

“Step away from the ledge!” he commands.

Connor rises to his feet and Hank searches the android’s face for any sign of fear, but his expression is unreadable as he stares down his gun for the second time. His eyes meet Hank’s, defiant. He is nothing more than an obstacle to Connor’s programming.

“After everything we’ve been through..." Connor says, with the nerve to sound betrayed. "I respected you, Hank. I thought we were friends!”

“Oh don’t give me that social bullshit program! Just tell me this, if we’re best fucking friends: What the hell happened when you went to Jericho?”

This could end very badly for him. Connor is stronger, faster, and a better shot than he is. But, well, Hank loves a good gamble. There are worse ways to die. Worse things than death, too.

“My predecessor failed to neutralize the leader of the deviants. It was compromised and subsequently destroyed. CyberLife sent me to replace it.”

What the fuck.

Hank is, quite frankly, way too sober to deal with this shit. Knowing time is limited, however, he tries to think more like Connor. Compromised. He'd used that word that before. It had basically meant deviancy. And as for the rest of it...

“Shit. Okay. So you, what, turned deviant and then...fuckin’ died? And CyberLife just booted up a spare?!”

“Correct.”

He takes a deep breath to steady himself.

“Were you scared?” Hank asks.

“Androids don’t feel fear.”

“You do, clone or not," he insists. "I've seen it.”

They both know the implication.

“I don’t...” Connor trails off, staring wide-eyed at something Hank can’t see. “I have to leave now,” he says quickly. “Killing you is not part of my mission. I’m glad to have met you, Hank. I sincerely hope you can come to terms with what happened to your son.”

“What?! Hey, wait a goddamn minute—”

Hank lowers the gun. He catches the android’s arm as he starts heading toward the only safe way down from this rooftop. Connor stops walking.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Lieutenant.”

It’s not a threat.

It’s a plea.

What would android Jesus do?

He would talk.

“Connor, listen to me. You gotta decide who you are. You still have a choice. You don’t have to follow anyone’s orders anymore, okay? Fuck CyberLife! You are alive, and trust me I know how fuckin’ scary that is, but you deserve to be free. Hell, you already died for it once.”

There is a long, tense silence. Connor shuts his eyes, LED spinning red. When he opens them again, he looks damn near close to tears, and he's trembling slightly. Hank once read somewhere that androids only have lungs to put humans at ease, but as he watches Connor take several shaky breaths he wonders if it's comforting for the android, too.

Hank decides that, if they both survive this, he will make sure the kid experiences some positive emotions.

"Connor? You still with me?"

“I... I had to protect the deviants. It's my fault Jericho was attacked.”

“No, that honor belongs to Agent Dick Perkins.”

“I should've known they were using me. I led them straight to Jericho. And then I...I almost...” He casts a meaningful glance at the discarded sniper rifle.

“But you didn't shoot. Markus is fine. You can blame yourself all day if you want, or we could try to help him.”

“Right. Yes,” Connor agrees, deep in thought. “I’m sorry, Hank. I didn’t mean for you to get involved in all of this.”

Hank waves a hand dismissively. “Shut the fuck up. I involved myself. Pretty sure this isn't what either of us had in mind. What’s the plan?”

The plan, like all of Connor's plans, is insane and very likely to get him killed. CyberLife still trusts him, so he wants to go back there under false pretenses and gather a deviant army to aid the cause. It's practically a suicide mission. Sounds perfect to Hank. _But no, Lieutenant, you should really go home. Keep yourself and Sumo out of danger._

Yeah, fuck that. He is not going to let Connor do more dangerous shit on his own.

After all, they're partners.

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, turns out if Connor deviates but then dies defending Jericho, he'll be replaced. It's basically like remaining a machine. You can still choose not to shoot Markus at the speech, and I even got the Partners trophy, but no post-credits hug scene. I felt cheated so I wrote this.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
